


A New Life

by Comicsohwhyohwhy



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Magic, Those two aren't fit to care for a child, and it will be sappy, but yes they will do it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-10-10 09:41:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17423474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Comicsohwhyohwhy/pseuds/Comicsohwhyohwhy
Summary: When Victor found the girl, he didn’t think she would survive.Sorcerer Supreme Tony Stark and Victor von Doom find themselves with a baby. No one is sure how that will go.





	A New Life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [laireshi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/laireshi/gifts).



> This is a birthday present for the lovely Laireshi, and I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU MADE ME WRITE KID FIC OKAY. WTH.  
> Depending on what you feel like, the Tony and Doom in this story are either the canon ones later down the line - as insinuated in Bendis' Iron Man-run - or from an alternate universe. Either way, they are terrible and sappy.  
> <3

When Victor found the girl, he didn’t think she would survive. The Negative Zone had been in disarray that day, Annihilus was on a rampage, and the dimensional gateways were in danger of breaking down. Victor only just managed to fortify them, and inwardly he cursed Anthony for not being with him. It had been the two of them for so long – it was second nature to Victor now, to feel Anthony’s magic by his side, sharp and powerful and so much brighter than his own, but its match in every other way.

And of course, there was the little detail of having literally shared his magic, his life and his heart with the Sorcerer Supreme. Around his neck, he felt the amulet that connected them quiver, and as he closed his hand around it, it was warm. Even when they were in different dimensions, when Anthony had his own dangerous business to take care of, to save the galaxy he’d sworn to protect, their magic ran between them like a band of fire. Victor let his eyes fall shut, for one moment, then he cast the last fortification spell that nearly left him drained. _Almost ready to leave._

But then he heard it. It sounded like a pathetic little mewling sound, so out of place on this barren world that for a moment Victor thought it was an illusion. But it came again, and Victor could not risk leaving anyone here, on a world in constant danger of being destroyed by Annihilus. He headed towards the rocks from which the sound came.

Victor saw it right away. A little bundle, left in a crevace. The form was human. Victor went closer, carefully, measuring each step, because this was the Negative Zone – just because something appeared human didn’t mean it necessarily was.

But then he saw that it was apparently a human girl. She couldn’t be older than a few months and she looked profoundly unhappy, little hands balled into fists. He did a quick magical scan of her body and found that she had a high fever and was very weak. Victor scowled and looked around for any signs of the parents. There were the remains of a tent nearby, but no people – they seemed to have left in a hurry.

Then Victor saw the note pinned under the little cot the child was in. It was hastily scrawled and it wasn’t in any language Victor immediately recognised. But a spell of translation made quick work of it. The parents had fled, on a desperate run from Annihilus. They had left _their child_ behind in their quest for freedom and life. No matter how terrified they had been, no matter how weak the child, that was unforgivable. Maybe, long ago, Victor would not have cared – but he had learnt so many things since then. He wasn’t the man he used to be, he knew that − and if Victor found himself unable to believe it on a dark day, he knew Anthony always would.

He couldn’t leave a child to destruction. Carefully, Victor wrapped her in his coat before he cast the rune that would lead him back home safely.

********

When he arrived at the workshop, Anthony was already there, back from his own interdimensional adventure. Victor took off his mask, then he took Anthony in – he was hunched in on himself, his cape was scorched, his face tired, dark shadows under his eyes, and he didn’t seem very focused. Victor tracked his body for injuries, the way he’d done a hundred times before, and he saw Anthony smile a little at the familiar ritual.

“I’m fine, Victor.”

Victor raised an eyebrow. There was blood all over Anthony’s left arm. “You don’t look fine.”

Anthony scoffed. “Please, we both know I’ve had worse.”

But before he could protest, Victor touched his amulet and let his magic flow. He felt the familiar warmth gather, then slowly leave him as he sent his healing strength towards Anthony. Anthony staggered backwards a little, and then it was over – Victor was a little shaky, tired from having given some of his life energy to Anthony, but Anthony’s eyes looked clearer and his posture more open, relaxed. Victor could tell there was a moment when Anthony wanted to be annoyed at him, his stubborn, self-reliant side perking up, but then he clearly changed his mind. With a loose, happy smile he stepped towards Victor for what was clearly supposed to be a kiss.

Right before he was there, though, Anthony stopped, and for the first time noticed the little bundle Victor had slung over his shoulder, almost hidden under his bright red cloak. The baby had gone quiet, which wasn’t a good sign, as Victor realised now that his preoccupation with Anthony’s wellbeing was gone. He carefully sent his magic out and was relieved to find that she had just fallen asleep. But her temperature was still too high.

“Is that… a baby?” Anthony’s eyes were so wide that Victor felt both a twinge of amusement and worry.

“It is. The girl was left behind by her parents in the Negative Zone.”

Anthony opened his mouth to ask further questions, but then he frowned a little. “She is hurt.”

Victor sighed. “Yes, she has a fever. And she seems very weak.”

Before he had to explain further, Anthony had very carefully unwrapped the bundle from his shoulder. The girl remained sound asleep. There was something exceedingly gentle on Anthony’s face as he looked at her. Victor didn’t want to think too much about what it meant.

“I will give her some madrugada root. That should take care of the fever. And she seems to be undernourrished. Could you prepare some warm milk? Test it with a finger for the temperature before feeding it to her with a spoon.”

Victor considered asking how Anthony knew all of those things about babies, but Anthony had already turned and walked away. And Victor knew that Anthony was a complicated man, solitary and powerful in all the ways that made Victor shiver from more than fear, but he was also sweet and secretive, and he knew that Anthony’s past had more twists and turns in it than he was willing to share. Anthony knew loss and pain, but he also knew how to assuage those very things.

Carefully, he put the baby down on the cot that him and Anthony kept in their lab for particularly consuming projects, for the nights when neither of them wanted to go to sleep and leave the other alone, but one had to force the other to at least take a break. The girl seemed about to wake up, blinking her little eyelids slowly. Victor frowned, then he concentrated, and his conjuring magic immediately did its work, despite Victor’s exhaustion. There was a warm blanket in his hand, which he carefully placed under the child. She whined a little, then she crinkled up her nose and went quiet again.

Something warm furled in Victor’s stomach. Before he had time to interrogate his feelings, Anthony was back. He had a baby bottle in hand, filled with a green liquid. Victor had no idea where he had gotten the bottle, if maybe it was also the result of magic, of Anthony channeling his magic _yet again_ after how drained he had been just a minute ago. But before he could question Anthony, the girl whimpered and extended her little arms out.

A little smile found its way on Anthony’s face, and Victor almost felt a little jealous – that private, warm expression was one he felt was usually reserved for him. But when Anthony took the girl in his arms, carefully, like he was handling some intricate magical machine, she cooed a little, and there was that warm thing in Victor’s stomach again. Very gently, Anthony put the baby bottle to her mouth. She scrunched up her little face – her eyes were a vivid light brown, almost golden, Victor could now see – but after a moment, she took a sip. And then more.

“Did you get the milk?”

When Anthony addressed him, Victor had to almost shake himself out of just watching the scene, watching how carefully weighed Anthony’s every movement was around the baby.

“I’m making it now.” Victor actually found milk in their little fridge; he considered using his magic to heat it up, but then again he had already exerted himself enough today and Anthony always said: _magic has a price_. Also, normal people apparently managed to accomplish mundane tasks such as this one without channeling occult forces, so Victor simply put the milk in the microwave.

When it was done, Anthony, who was still focused exclusively on the baby, wordlessly handed him the now empty bottle. Victor carefully tested the temperature of the milk with his finger, as he had been told to do by the Sorcerer Supreme himself, then he filled the bottle and held it out to Anthony.

Anthony turned around and when he saw Victor’s gesture, he smiled; the skin around his eyes crinkled and Victor wanted to remember that expression on his face forever. “No, you feed her.”

Victor had faced warlocks with delusions of grandeur, demons and many a mad dictator. He really shouldn’t have felt a jolt of fear. He knew he was being ludicrous, but now that he really looked at it, the baby looked so fragile, much more fragile than anything someone like him should be allowed to touch. A fleeting memory of unwarranted destruction wanted to settle in his mind, but Victor chased it away. He wasn’t that person anymore.

Something on Anthony’s face had gone soft. Long ago, Victor would have considered it pity, would have raged at it – but now he knew that he had no secrets from the man he was bonded to. Anthony gently cradled the child in his arms, then he held her out to Victor. “Go on.”

Gingerly, he took her. She nestled into his arms and crinkled up her little nose again. Victor held her close, then he carefully put the bottle to her mouth. She fussed a little, but then she started drinking. Victor let go a breath he hadn’t realised he had been holding.

Anthony looked delighted at the scene before him. “Who would have thought, the all-powerful Victor von Doom as a babysitter.”

Victor recognised the sincerity behind the seemingly mocking words, so he just scoffed. “At least I am not a Sorcerer Supreme forgetting his duties because of a pathetic little bundle of a human.”

Anthony clacked his tongue, but he looked very amused, and Victor knew he couldn’t fool him. “You know very well that I am not neglecting my duties. After all, you built all our warning systems.”

That was true, and a proof of how much Anthony trusted him. Victor looked back at the child, careful not to let Anthony see the expression on his face, which he suspected might have been more telling than he liked. At times he really missed the mask that Anthony had cajoled him out of, bit by bit. The child had stopped drinking and her eyes had fallen shut. Her little chest moved in time with her breaths. Her face was pale, her eyelids almost see-through.

Victor suddenly felt exhausted again. Maybe this was all for nothing. “She is very weak.”

At that, something almost dangerous glowed in Anthony’s eyes. Unconsciously, he touched the glowing Eye of Agamotto around his waist. His voice was all fire and steel when he spoke. “She will survive.”

Victor would follow Anthony anywhere; he had seen him undo the course of time, achieve the impossible. For one moment, he let himself firmly believe that his stubborn miracle of a husband was correct. She would survive.

*******

After two days, the girl’s condition seemed to have stabilised. She had mostly slept during that time, and Anthony had spent long hours just cradling her and feeding her whenever she woke up. Victor had kept on glancing at Anthony, at his tired form over in the chair, but the serene smile on his face had dissuaded him from interfering. It was rare to see him like that, all quiet happiness. Anthony was clearly not sleeping enough – but then again, he almost never was, and this way he was at least helping another creature, and it seemed to make him feel at peace. So Victor had simply taken over some more of the magical guard duties than he usually did. And when Anthony had no choice but to hurry out to do his work as Sorcerer Supreme, Victor had taken over the care of the baby.

At first, he had mostly let her rest in the little cot that him and Anthony had made up. He was busy, after all – in Anthony’s absence, he wanted to get further ahead with some of their experiments, and he got lost in updating the design of their dream drones. Only when he heard the girl whine quietly he prepared a bottle of milk and carefully let her drink. Most of the time, she fell asleep again very fast, and Victor only spent a little longer than necessary looking at her little face and the way she moved her tiny fists before getting back to work.

At some point though, she started fussing and the bottle didn’t seem to calm her down. Victor sighed. What was it that made children happy again, apart from food? Almost absent-mindedly, he waved his hand and a little melody started, an old lullaby from a part of his past that Victor had almost forgotten. The magical voices that sang it seemed to come from every corner of the room at once, and for one moment the girl’s eyes went very wide. Then she tried to turn her head, and then, all of a sudden, she started crying.

Victor cursed under his breath and the music cut off with a snap of his finger. Apparently, invisible magical choirs in stereo quality were too much for the runt. Very gently, he picked her up. She scrunched up his nose at him, apparently one of her typical expressions, and he started slowly cradling her to soothe her. The tears stopped falling, but she looked at him as if she were confused. That was to be expected, Victor thought – after all, it had always been Anthony who had cradled her so far.

Victor had made no conscious decision to that effect, but suddenly he became aware of the fact that he had started moving while cradling her, moving back and forth, swaying through the room, almost as if he were dancing. The girl’s facial features had relaxed – she seemed to be enjoying it. Then Victor brushed against a work table and some tools clattered to the floor. He cursed again, but then the girl chuckled loudly and happily. Her smile was infectious – he resumed swaying back and forth, and then pretended to collide with something by accident again. A bright laughter bubbled from her lips, and little twinkly lights appeared all around her.

Victor stopped dancing abruptly and touched one of the magical lights. He had not conjured them, which meant…

The girl was reaching for the fairy lights with her little hands, her laughter so fast and happy now that it almost sounded like she had the hiccups. Victor marveled at the display that apparently came as naturally to the girl as breathing. You really never knew what you got with people who had managed to survive in the Negative Zone. It seemed they had found themselves a little mage in the making.

Anthony chose that moment to apparate in the middle of the lab. Again, he looked drained from whatever had alerted him to the outer perimeter of their dimension, and Victor saw him take on a fighting stance almost unconsciously when he perceived the lights all over the lab. Victor couldn’t help the fond little smile that found its way on his face when he saw Anthony raise his arms in practiced caution, his eyes flying around the lab until he saw Victor. Anthony immediately relaxed and countered with a smile of his own. With three quick strides, he was in the reach of Victor’s arms, only that Victor’s arms were still busy holding the laughing kid. Anthony gently placed a hand on Victors cheek, then their lips touched.

When he pulled back, Anthony looked less drained than before. He smiled down at the baby. “You have taken her out, I see. She seems to like you. Have you conjured those baubles for her?”

Victor shook his head, half his mind still occupied with checking Anthony over for injuries. He seemed to be fine, if on the brink of physical exhaustion; Victor really had to get him to take a break. Before he could elaborate further on the baby’s condition, however, she sneezed, and light exploded all over the workshop. Victor scowled, but he couldn’t keep it up for long, because Anthony was clearly delighted. There was an almost childlike wonder on his face as he followed the colourful sparks with his gaze.

“She’s magical!” Anthony was beaming, and his joy was infectious. He was right – it was a miraculous thing that they had found a child with the aptitude for magic, of all things. Maybe they could teach her.

Except that she wasn’t _theirs_ , not exactly. A shadow settled over Victor’s heart. She had been abandoned by her parents – and who were they to try and make up for what she had lost? Two aging sorcerers, both battling their own demons?

Victor felt Anthony’s heavy gaze on him, and he didn’t want to face any pity now, any comfort or bland reassurances. So he just handed the child to Anthony without really looking at him.

“Yes, she is. Maybe you should run some tests.”

*****

The child had recovered completely. Anthony had spent another day by her side, coddling her, feeding her, singing her quiet little songs under his breath when she didn’t sleep. When she was awake, there were more little explosions of light, more beautiful displays of innate magical talent that made Anthony gasp audibly and beam with the power of a thousand suns. Victor had tried to avoid Anthony and the baby, instead keeping busy with experiments and all the practical work that had fallen by the wayside the last few days. He succeeded, right until Anthony was suddenly standing behind him. Victor hadn’t even heard him get up; but a quick glance told him that the child was safely tucked away in the cot. And his lover’s facial expression told him he wouldn’t be able to get out of it this time.

“Victor, what is it?”

Anthony’s voice was neutral, and Victor appreciated that. However, that didn’t mean he was going to make it easy on Anthony.

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

Anthony sighed and tiredly rubbed a hand over his eyes. _I really have to get him to sleep more_ , Victor thought. “You know exactly what I mean.”

Victor clucked his tongue. “Well, I could of course make use of my considerable psychic powers to find out what’s bothering you, but don’t you think that given the circumstances that would be a waste of magical energy?”

Anthony’s lips became thin, and for a moment Victor thought he might actually get out of that conversation just by being as unhelpful as possible. But then Anthony shook his head a little. “No, we are not doing that. You know exactly what I’m talking about. You look at the child as if she had personally wronged you.”

For a moment, Victor was speechless. That wasn’t even close to how he really felt about the child. But then he realised that it was Anthony’s turn to provoke him – of course Anthony knew what was really going on. He just wanted to make Victor talk by getting him to contradict him. Oh, the wonders of communication between two stubborn, solitary mages.

Victor pinched the bridge of his nose. “I… don’t think it’s wise that we keep her with us.”

Anthony’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“You know why. We aren’t exactly the most capable people to be bringing up a child. I shouldn’t have brought her here. It was a mistake.”

Anthony’s gaze softened. “It was no mistake, Victor, and you know it. I am so proud of the man you have become.”

What would have seemed like a non sequitur to most people made something relax in Victor’s stomach. Anthony _knew_ him. Anthony knew his fears of still being fundamentally broken, of the monster still lurking inside of him. Being known like that was still an all encompassing feeling, almost too much to bear. But the thought of losing it was entirely unbearable. Something came loose in Victor’s chest.

“What if we mess it up? I am not sure I can care for a child, Anthony. I am not sure I can take that responsibility.”

Anthony looked to the floor. “Neither am I sure that I can do it. But together, we are better than either of us could hope to be alone, aren’t we?”

Now there was a slightly pleading note in his voice, and it was only then that Victor realised that he wasn’t the only one who was very afraid. Anthony had just put on a smoother mask, had kept himself busy caring for the child, while Victor had tried to pull away.

He took Anthony’s hand. It was cold and felt fragile to his touch. But when he let his magic flow, there was just unity, just _them_ , their magic intertwined and blossoming into something more beautiful every moment.

They had made _this_ , Victor thought with sudden clarity – they had made this union and all that came of it, all the magical defenses to their dimension, all the bots that helped them in their endeavours. They had brought together science and magic and turned them into something new with endless potential for development. If they could do that, then maybe, just maybe…

Anthony had let out a slow breath and closed his eyes, visibly at ease as he felt Victor’s magic course through him. He was beautiful that way, all tightly controlled power, utter relaxation and confident ease going hand in hand. Victor just had to kiss him.

When they parted lips, Anthony looked a little dazed. Then he laughed. “Was that supposed to prove anything to me? Because if yes, then well done, I am feeling markedly better. I mean, our magic combined has beaten back Dormammu, the Celestials and Galactus, right? What are a few diaper changes compared to that?”

Victor smiled. “Nothing.”

When he next spoke, there was still a little hesitation in Anthony’s voice. “So… we keep her then?”

Victor thought of her bright laughter, her little hands and natural joy at the magic she projected. He thought of a future where they could learn, together, all three of them; and where maybe, one day, there was someone to take over the dangerous business him and Anthony had given their lives to, should the need arise. But that day wouldn’t come soon, and until then, she would smile at him and maybe that warm thing in his stomach would become a constant companion.

Apparently, his face had said enough, because Anthony looked relieved and happy. “So what do we call her?”

Victor was quiet for a moment. When he spoke, his voice sounded strange to his own ears. “Valeria.”

Anthony didn’t answer for a moment, and Victor knew that Anthony knew everything – his past, even the most shameful corners of it, had been exposed long before. And miraculously, Anthony hadn’t found him lacking despite having seen it all.

Then Anthony smiled. “That’s a wonderful name for her.”

There was a little whining sound, and they quickly hurried over to the cot, steps perfectly in tune. When the girl saw them, her expression immediately brightened. The explosion of light over their heads wasn’t unexpected anymore.

Anthony popped the girl on the nose, and she let out one of her bright bubbly laughs again and tried to catch his fingers. It was obvious – Valeria knew what she wanted. And Victor already felt himself willing to go to the end of the world for her to get it.


End file.
